1. Whitepaper
The Seven Cs of Social
Learning: How Social Learning
Technologies Can Meet
Today’s Business Challenges
A New Approach to Social with Some Old Twists
The impact of social learning tools and how they affect business is growing larger.
It’s no longer a question of “if” businesses will engage in social learning, but “how”
and “when”.
Traditionally, organizations have wrestled with how to define social learning.
Social learning can be classified as: “Any type of learning where a person learns
vicariously through the observations of, or interactions with, others.”
Social learning technology should enable this definition of social learning and
what is now called the “Seven Cs”. Josh Bersin (Bersin & Associates) has often
referred to four of them: conversation, connection, collaboration and content.
While acknowledging these, there are three additional and important “Cs” in the
business today: consumption, contribution and control.
So, in the updated model, there are Seven Cs of social technologies:
1. Content – in the forms of knowledge-based assets, experiences and
expertise – this is where it all starts.
2. Consumption - of content, as in usable, reference-able, searchable,
tag-able and reusable.
3. Contribution - of content that can and should be user-generated.
4. Conversation - about content – it’s what makes it socially relevant to
the business.
5. Collaboration - with others over content – it’s goal oriented and how we
get things done socially.
6. Connections - made with others regarding content. In competitive
business, it’s not just what you know, but who you know. Once
connections are made, vicarious reinforcement follows.
7. Control - this is the most important and relevant “C” enterprises
are dealing with today. Social learning technologies should enable
customers to govern the continuum of openness and control as it
applies to their business.
Social technologies should enable providers and users to navigate the Seven Cs
while remaining meaningful to the workflow of the business.
Whitepaper
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2. The Seven Cs of Social Learning: How Social Learning
Technologies Can Meet Today’s Business Challenges
Adoption Still on the Rise
Despite the economy, the International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that the
U.S. online community software market will grow from $278.4 million in 2008 to
$1.6 billion in 2013 at a compounded annual growth rate of nearly 42%. Increases
in learning technology spending in combination with a predicted growth potential
of about 400% for the community software market indicate the proliferation of new
social learning technologies.
Additionally, Bersin & Associates report that, despite the economy and a drop in
overall learning technology spending, the use of social learning technologies for
business continue to rise with 24% of U.S.-based companies adopting them in 2009.
From a consumer-based perspective, in the May 2010 issue of Training +
Development magazine, Pat Galagan reported that the Internet has become the
common place to share what we are reading, thinking and listening to:
• 33% of adults post to social sites such as Facebook and Twitter
at least once a week
• 60% maintain a social networking profile
• 70% read blogs, tweets and watch videos online
With respect to who is using social, market trends and data indicate that large
businesses and the technology and business service segments are making the
most use of social learning, while small business is the fastest growing segment.
Still, across the board and regardless of size or industry, the use and adoption
of social learning technologies continues to grow and more companies are
recognizing the value that they can bring to the business.
Bersin also reports the top three learning and development priorities for the past
three years remain:
1. Increasing the effectiveness of learning programs
2. Integration with performance and competency management initiatives
3. Reducing costs and improving efficiencies
In order to compete effectively in a global economy, more organizations
are recognizing the need to adapt and innovate as open cultures. More are
adopting social technologies that enable conversation, connectivity, collaboration,
consumption and contribution of content - within and between their employees,
partners, customers and prospects. Organizations need to enable their customers
while allowing them to govern openness and control as it applies to their business.
The following table provides insight into the ways organizations can and do use
social technologies to address the Seven Cs within their enterprises:
www.sumtotalsystems.com 2

3. The Seven Cs of Social Learning: How Social Learning
Technologies Can Meet Today’s Business Challenges
Use Cases for Social Technologies Based on the Seven Cs
Seven C Focal
Scenario
Point(s)
Provide on-demand access to real-time discussion, Connection, Content,
training, support and expertise. and Consumption
Foster on-the job social learning through communities All
of practice (common interest) or purpose (common
goals).
Crowd-source real-time “HowTo”-type information Content and
with YouTube videos, images and URLs. Contribution
Allow users to interact through wikis, blogs, discussion All
forums and repositories.
Conduct focus groups and solicit feedback on Conversation and
products, services and courseware. Collaboration
Grant real-time access to thought leaders, instructors Connection and
and subject matter experts. Conversation
Provide learning environments where coaches, All
mentors and instructors can interact, share knowledge,
or teach learners in community or programmed
instructional settings.
Share and hyper-distribute new product and service Connection
information to Twitter, Google and Facebook using
synaptic Web 3.0 technologies.
Support and moderate all levels of Seven-C capable All
interaction from B2E, B2C, B2P, E2E, C2C, P2P and
P2C.
Competitive Challenge
Today’s customers of e-learning and social technologies are demanding more
for their users, operations and business. These demands include the ability to
customize the look, feel and functions of their learning management systems to
meet the needs of their employees, partners and customers. Social and real-
time Web services, what is commonly referred to as Web 2.0 on the Internet and
Enterprise 2.0 in business contexts, provide opportunities to meet these needs
in the form of widgets and social Web applications. Factor in the needs of the
extended enterprise where fast growing companies are educating their partners
and customers and marketing their products and services, and the need to
socially spread the word while engaging your users becomes more powerful and
more relevant to the business.
www.sumtotalsystems.com 3

4. The Seven Cs of Social Learning: How Social Learning
Technologies Can Meet Today’s Business Challenges
At a business level, three challenges continue to bubble to the surface—
governance, adoption and culture:
1. Governance: Organizations are concerned with protecting their
intellectual property, image and brand. Social learning technologies can
resolve this by employing policies that make sense for the business
while, at a technology level, providing the enterprise with that last “C”
– control.
2. Adoption: Social business technologies need to emulate the best of
consumer-based social networking applications. Think about Twitter,
Digg and Facebook. These tools solve the problems of rating, review,
commenting, real-time updates and all the Seven Cs with simple
functionality and simple interface designs. Social learning technologies
need to leverage familiar interface designs that emulate these tools so
they are easy to administer and easy to use.
3. Corporate Culture: Some organizations are open cultures—conducive
to information sharing and collaboration. Others are more closed
cultures and need more time to adapt; but it’s important to acknowledge,
most businesses recognize the impact of social learning technologies
and the power they bring to the enterprise. Remember, it’s no longer
a question of “if” businesses will engage in social learning, but “how”
and “when”.
These mission critical needs present an opportunity for organizations and their
customers. Organizations must recognize that social learning technologies
need to add value to the workflow and how it relates to the business context.
At the same time, the ability to contribute, consume and collaboratively
interact upon content should be easy to access, use and administer for
employee development and the extended enterprise.
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5. The Seven Cs of Social Learning: How Social Learning
Technologies Can Meet Today’s Business Challenges
More Information
For more information, send an email to connect@sumtotalsystems.com
About SumTotal
SumTotal Systems, Inc. is the global leader strategic Human Capital
Management (HCM) solutions that provide organizations with a new level of
visibility to help make more informed business decisions and accelerate growth.
Recognized by industry analysts as the most complete solution, SumTotal
provides full employee lifecycle management, including a core system of
record, from a single provider for improved business intelligence. The company
offers customers of all sizes and industries the most flexibility and choice with
multiple purchase, configuration, and deployment options. We have increased
the performance of the world’s largest organizations including Sony Electronics
(NYSE: SNE), AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN [ADR]; London: AZN), Amway
(KUL:AMWAY), Seagate (NYSE: STX), Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), and Google
(NASDAQ:GOOG).
For more information, or to request a demo, please call +1 (866) 768-6825 (US /
Canada), +1 (352) 264-2800 (international) or visit www.sumtotalsystems.com
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